scott israel
Incompetent former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
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The South Florida Sun Sentinal newspaper has done a lot of very good reporting over the years detailing the travesty — the cascading series of failures at all levels — that was the Parkland shooting. Regarding the performance of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, they wrote about school resource officer and “Broward coward” Scot Peterson, who stayed outside the high school listening to sound of gunfire and screams. They detailed the failures up and down the chain in command in the BCSO. Failures of training and leadership throughout that lead to the shooting and directly contributed to the death toll that day.

In other words, they’ve had a front row seat in the endless breakdowns, missteps and “amazing” leadership of former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and his law enforcement agency. So when the Sun Sentinel publishes an editorial endorsing him in his most recent run for the job heading the department that he degraded and embarrassed, it’s all you can do to keep your jaw from hitting the keyboard.

The Sun Sentinel editorial board writes . . .

Gregory Tony, the incumbent, should not have been appointed and does not deserve to be elected. The other four candidates lack sufficient money and political support to be competitive. There are only two viable candidates in this race: Israel and Tony.

In other words, Tony was appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, after he relieved Israel of his job. No matter how qualified he may be or how well he’s performed in the position, that’s a stigma Sheriff Tony — a Democrat — can’t wash off.

The Sun Sentinel itself editorialized for Israel’s removal after the Parkland Commission report was released. But that was then. This is now.

With time, however, that judgment seems harsh. Israel could not have prevented the tragedy. The school system was more to blame. So was the FBI, which did nothing about a credible warning of a potential school shooter.

If you’ll remember, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office received literally dozens of calls about the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, and his family in the years leading up the the shooting. And Israel’s department did nothing.

The editorial board justifies its opposition to reelecting Tony this way:

Tony’s career is marred by deceit. He lied to DeSantis to get the job. He lied by concealing a significant fact that the governor and the public deserved to know — that when he was 14, he had shot and killed another young man. He also withheld this fact from the Coral Springs Police Department, where he began his law enforcement career 15 years ago.

He also kept from Coral Springs that he had used a hallucinogenic substance — LSD — in the 1990s, and that he had been charged with passing a bad check while a student at Florida State University. He told Coral Springs he had not known about the charge.

All salient points, factors that are arguably more than sufficient to oppose his candidacy. But Israel?

The nominee — and the likely next sheriff, since Democrats dominate Broward politics — will either be Israel, a veteran at 64, or Tony, who at 41 seems to be out of his depth despite the five stars that adorn his collar.

Israel’s tenure before the Parkland tragedy was progressive and without personal scandal.

The Sun Sentinel‘s argument for Israel seems to be, He was a GREAT sheriff…until all of his previously unknown failures led to and exacerbated a massacre that resulted in 17 dead teachers and students. 

Other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

BSO’s epic failure that day remains seared in our collective memory. While some deputies eventually demonstrated bravery, far too many showed cowardice, hiding behind trees, cars and walls. Besides Peterson, seven other deputies also heard the gunfire and failed to pursue the shooter. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, which investigated the tragedy in detail, said they showed “no sense of urgency” despite hearing gunshots on a school campus.

Keep in mind that paragraph was written as part of the Sun Sentinel‘s endorsement of Israel. Here’s more.

Israel might never have been removed had he taken responsibility for what happened, rather than credit for the response, which the Sun Sentinel’s reporting proved to be untrue. For BSO’s response was his responsibility, if not his fault. There is a difference.

The editorial board is more than willing to overlook those 17 gravestones. And people in the media continue to wonder why trust in their profession has never been lower.

The Sun Sentinel discards the other four candidates currently in the race because they “lack sufficient money and political support.” Any one of them would be a more credible choice than Israel. There are probably dozens of reformed convicted felons who would be more effective at running the Broward County Sheriff’s Office that a self-aggrandizing clown like Scott Israel.

That the Sun Sentinel’s editorial board can’t (or won’t) recognize that fact tells you all you need to know about the media in America today.

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70 COMMENTS

    • I’d be just fine with him getting terminal cancer and dying a slow, painful death…

      • Your relatively consistent comments like this caused me to think of you when I read about RBG’s “newest” health issues.

        And caused me to think of the following video. Because sometimes what you really need is for someone else to pay a horrible price.

    • Why are the frickin dems so anxious to ruin my country? I know, they are actually a communist party and they need to destroy my country so they can take it over, just like they said they would some 50 or 60 years ago. Without firing a shot.

      • “Why are the frickin dems so anxious to ruin my country?”

        Because they can’t wait to ‘fix’ it to their liking…

  1. And since a Leftist is, above all else, a Leftist; I predict the Leftist scum of Broward county, Florida, will re-elect him to the sound of loud cheering.

    A Pox on his house, AIDS of his ‘taint, and may he suffer from terminal halitosis.

    Just hearing that news makes me physically nauseous. Every kid (and adult) murdered in that school should be spinning in their graves…

  2. If what Dan has included here isn’t enough for you, try reading Why Meadow Died by Andrew Pollack (Meadow’s father). It outlines a lot of the systematic failures that led up to the Parkland shooting. Welly noted and quoted. I guess on the brighter side, it doesn’t show Israel as the top turd on the crap pile, but he had a bit to do with it. More amazing was his lack of responsibility in accepting his department’s failure as any of his fault.

    I can’t speak to Tony’s indiscretions, but He was a juvenile at the time and it’s one tombstone to 17. I believe that is in his favor.

    Is it just me or does it seem wrong when a candidate is measured by how much money their campaign can raise?

    • (Randy) Money? In Illinois the former governor was accused of being a Millionaire businessman=bad. Our new governor is a Billionaire from family owning (inheritance) Hyatt hotel chain=good.

  3. What is our country coming to? Revolution next? Anarchy is spreading, these are times of change and I see none in Browrd County…

  4. Well, he did do what the Dems wanted and that’s enable carnage to manipulate the emotions of any fence-sitters out there.

    I’m looking forward to next Summer when the Dems start defending Maxwells clientelle provided she lives long enough to testify.

  5. You know who’s in a great position to help those lesser-but-better candidates find the money and political support they’d need? The Sun Sentinel newspaper.

    So of course they didn’t.

  6. The democRat Party has no podium to criticize much less does a few newspaper clowns at the top speak for the newspaper rank and file. Keep in mind the democRat Party owns lock, stock and barrel the legacy of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, the KKK, lynching, Eugenics, Gun Control and other race based atrocities. The democRat Party uses others who may not have had perfect lives to whitewash democRat Party sleaze. The newspaper turn coats who now endorse isreal hope gullible readers are fixated on their finger pointing and forget about all about mountains of democRat Party atrocities.

    The evidence is overwhelming. The democRat Party is liable for Monetary Reparations payable to the victims or the descendants of victims of democRat Party race based atrocities. Bottom line…The sneaky democRast Party is throwing gullible Black Americans a bone by removing inanimate concrete statues and that’s nothing more than squeezing the weenie out of a hotdog.

  7. Democrats have always supported child molesters and child murderers. The sexually Liberated have made sure in california teachers who volunteer to carry are disarmed. The Libertarians Liberals and the Left can complain about police brutality all they want. But these cities are run by democrats. The police arresting policies are written by the same democrat city leaders.

    And the three L’s avoid pointing that out. Because the democrats support drug legalization. And that is more important to them. Than shooting criminals dead when they are caught robbing, raping, stealing, murdering, breaking into private property, or vandalizing another person’s stuff.

    The training manuals for the cops are written by democrats in these blue states.

    The Sun Sentinel newspaper is run by morally degenerate people. They support school children being shot dead in their classroom. And their teacher being unable to stop it.

    The republicans are known for being pro police. And the three L’s are known for being pro criminal. Scott Israel, democrat, is a pro criminal sheriff who will let criminals do whatever they want to do.

    • Chris in KY,

      “Democrats have always supported child molesters and child murderers.”

      You have it correctly.

      There are an awful lot of people who deny that worldwide pedophile/child trafficking rings exists.
      But they are a reality.
      And it is apparent that, at the highest levels of their organization, the Dems are involved.
      It is evil in its purest form.

      Our DOJ just arrested a bunch of low-level operatives, again.
      I am not understanding why they seem unable to go after those at the top.

      • In England, the supposed bastion of progress our leftists desperately wanted to emulate, there was a known, high profile child sex trafficking ring that the police refused to touch because the ringleaders were of Arabic descent. There’s a reason the traditional symbol of Lady Justice wears a blindfold, and allowing child sex traffickers to continue their horrific “business” solely due to the color of their skin is about as evil as it gets. Let’s also not forget that when the Washington Post, hardly a fringe outlet, published a glowing obituary of the now deceased founder of ISIS, they called him an “austere religious scholar” and didn’t even mention his legacy as a murdering serial rapist until practically a footnote in the article. There was precisely *zero* outrage from Democrats for that.

  8. This actually makes perfect sense, and will likely be supported by the community.
    Think about it, these folks have been trapped with their kids at home for the last 4 months, with no end in sight. They’re sick of them, and if there is anybody that knows how to get rid of a bunch of kids, it’s Scott Israel.
    4D Chess baby!

  9. Hmm. So Israel made a big ad buy with the paper, that the other candidates cannot afford…seems…fishy somehow.

  10. Two things:
    First, you can’t expect much from south Florida. The ages,
    temperature and the IQs are all in the 80s.
    Second, the media is why we can’t have nice things.

    • “The ages, temperature and the IQs are all in the 80s.”

      The ages are in the 80s, but the temps are pushing 100 F. It is flat *miserable* being outside this year…

  11. Wow. I didn’t think anyone could pick someone worse than Scott Israel but Florida managed to find someone!

    1) arrested for murder. Before you say “well, he was found not-guilty”, yes, so was OJ. And maybe it was self-defense. Could be. The decedent’s girlfriend isn’t necessarily an unbiased witness. But the context if the shooting is this: two youths in a crappy neighborhood had words and one went inside, grabbed a revolver, went back outside and shot the other to death.
    “William Scott, identified in the Daily News story as Gregory Tony’s father, told the paper that “his son apparently came in the house and grabbed the [.32-caliber] revolver that Scott kept hidden under his mattress.”
    “I saw the two of them together 20 minutes earlier,” Scott said. “They was laughing and talking… Next thing I know, I hear shots and see this kid lying in the street. I recognized who it was and I said, ‘God damn it! God damn it!… One hour later, I heard it was my son who did it.’
    —————
    2) He then lied about all of it when becoming a cop. This is a huge deal.
    3) He also lied about his hard drug use when becoming a cop. Specifically, he actually was honest the first time he applied to a police department, but then they rejected him because there is zero tolerance for LSD use for police applicants in many places. Then he lied on a subsequent application AND made sure to leave out that he had been rejected from the first agency (because subsequent background investigators will call the previous ones to make sure stories match). This was a calculated and deliberate deception.

    I can’t believe it but I agree with the newspaper. I didn’t think it could get worse than Israel but this guy is like the last person who should have a badge, much less head a department. WTF Florida?

    • Among people with morals, it’s a *massive* scandal.

      But these are Democrats you are talking about…

      • tbh I don’t even know how to look at it from a morals point of view but just as a law enforcement point of view neither one should have a badge. Israel’s problems are largely organizational while Tony’s are individual. I’m not sure which is worse.

    • Hannibal, you are simply wrong here, just like the Sun Sentinel. Greg Tony never lied about when he killed a man in self defense when he was being hired as a cop. He simply wasn’t asked about it. It’s not part of the job application process. They don’t ask if you’ve ever fired a gun in self defense, nor should they. Doing such a thing is neither illegal nor immoral.

      • I obviously know a hell of a lot more about police background investigations than you do.

        Care to explain how he lied about taking LSD while you’re at it?

  12. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. That said, I do not now nor have I ever lived in that part of Florida.

  13. Crap like this and people wonder NOTHING EVER CHANGES in their little world. If the people re-elect him, then the rest of the US isn’t going to listen to your whining and complaining when the same thing happens again.

  14. Sun Sentinel: “Tony’s career is marred by deceit. He lied to DeSantis to get the job. He lied by concealing a significant fact that the governor and the public deserved to know — that when he was 14, he had shot and killed another young man. He also withheld this fact from the Coral Springs Police Department, where he began his law enforcement career 15 years ago.”

    This is blatant lying by the Sun Sentinel. Greg Tony never lied or “concealed” that he killed a man in self defense when he was 14. He was simply never asked about it. It’s not a part of the job application process, nor should it be. There’s no reason he should be expected to talk about a deeply traumatic event from his childhood that was neither illegal or immoral. Tony said it himself: He didn’t want to be known as a crime victim who had to kill someone when he was a child. He wanted to be known for his accomplishments as an adult. In any case, he never lied or concealed this fact. If anyone in the job hiring process had asked him about it, he would have told them. They simply never did.

    The Sun Sentinel is clearly being dishonest, and it’s easy to see why: They are trying to demonize defensive gun use. They are trying to make it seem like killing someone in self defense is shameful.

    • You have zero idea what you’re talking about. It is part of any police background investigation to inquire about not only whether you were ever arrested but also whatever non-consensual contacts you have ever had with police, regardless of case disposition. It is not at all like a ‘normal’ job question questionnaire and it gets at the heart of actions and not just what someone was accused of.

      That’s ignoring the fact that he also lied about his drug use. To try and defend this guy you have to engage in Clinton-esqe mental gymnastics- “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

      • Tony wasn’t arrested for the killing. He was investigated by the juvenile authorities and then cleared. No arrest was made. This is why his background check didn’t show any arrests. Because there were none. This was a self defense killing. Why should that be used against him?

  15. This man should never again hold a public position, let alone a position of trust. He should be locked up in the stocks for all to ridicule. Then he should be put in a leaky boat and sent to North Korea. Maybe he gets there, maybe the sharks get him.

    I’ve often thought South Florida should be sawn off below Ocala and let drift away. Or at least cut the crust off like crappy toast.

  16. Meh, Democrat county, they richly deserve the poor governmental services that they get when they vote in these clowns. It is just amazing how stupid Democrat voters tolerate horrible city services year after year.

  17. Boy! Do I ever like your Post contributors!
    I watched the terrible tragedy, as did millions, and all of what ensued regarding blame and responsibility.
    Sheriff Israel certainly deserves all of the negative Press that he received afterwards. Your readers who have something to say about the man are correct. He was neglectful in his responsibility as a Sheriff when these children were murdered and does not deserve another chance at the Office. Not being a Floridian. I cannot believe that all of the other candidates are unworthy or unsuited for this job. What I do know is, all the country witnessed the during and aftermath of this terrible happening and this man should never hold public office again!

  18. Scott Israel is the perfect sheriff for Broward County. He’s an arrogant, incompetent, tone-deaf jackalope — exactly the kind of loser that Broward needs to assure its ultimate collapse. Obviously, 17 dead kids wasn’t enough.

    Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself. Broward is the enemy. Let it destroy itself.

  19. If Broward voters choose to elect that idiot back into office then Broward County deserves what it gets and I will have nothing more to say other than we tried to warn you.

    • I’d agree, the adults can deal with it; the problem is those who paid with their lives for his utter incompetence had no part in the election that put him there.

      You might not like an elected Republican, but democrats actually hurt people.

      • “those who paid with their lives for his utter incompetence had no part in the election that put him there.”

        But their parents have a part in the election, and they will vote for the pr!ck whose incompetence killed their children. An incompetent sheriff for incompetent parents — perfect synergy.

  20. Florida did pass a law that all schools have to have an armed guard.
    It can Be a police officer, a private security guard, or a volunteer.
    Teachers who are not full time in the classroom are allowed to concealed carry if they are ex military, ex law enforcement or take a 120 Hour course of instruction.
    Coaches, custodial staff, part-time classroom teachers can indeed be armed if they follow the above rules.

    Scott Israel was a terrible Sheriff and should be replaced.

  21. In Late Feb 2020 Trump called COVID-19 a hoax
    In 2017 The Republicans supported pedophile Roy Moore for the US Senate
    The Republicans currently have a so called leader in the White House, who bragged about grabbing women by the “pussy”, afraid to show his taxes (like others in the last 40+ years,), believes a Russian Thug Dictator over his own intelligence community, looks the other way while that same Russian thug puts a bounty on our Military, a chronic DRAFT DODGER, failed businessman, pathological liar and the list goes on and on.
    I am just glad my Marine Corps service ended before his term started!!

    What do the Republicans do? Stand by kiss his ass.
    Scott Israel is not perfect by a long shot, but Republicans are the last ones that should talk.

    • How many are dead because of trump’s lackluster response to COVID-19?
      How many service people (not just Military) have died from Russian/Iranian bounties?
      What happened in with the Military deaths in Niger/Pensacola etc? Why didnt those and other tragedies
      get the same attention as Benghazi.
      You Republicans call yours patriotic and let that monster in Washington destroy a lot that is good about this country that I fought for for 21 years in the Corps.
      Again Scott Israel is far from perfect but you may need to look in the mirror before lodging some of your comments.

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